Transmission Gully

There was a big 4 page section in the A section of the Dominion Post today dedicated to answering questions about Transmission Gully, including the main headline on the front page.

And as much as I'd like to see Transmission Gully built, I honestly think it never will. And if it is, it will all be funded privately, built privately, and owned privately. There is just no way a huge bureaucratic NZ Government, City Councils that squabble amongst themselves, and a ton of lawyers battling for or against the RMA will get it built.

Where's Atlas when you need him?

Skyscrapers-Library Tower

The Library Tower (or US Bank Tower) is the tallest building in Los Angeles, and the tallest along North America's West Coast. Completed in 1989, the tower was so named in order to save the Los Angeles Library, which had severe financial difficulties at the time, from having to close.

The Library Tower is 310 metres high, with 73 floors all the way to the top. It has over 120,000 square metres of floor space, with 24 elevators.

The tower is best known for dominating the LA skyline, getting blown up in the movie "Independence Day", its shiny gold-coated facade, and for the distinctive "crown" at its peak, with the US Bank signage looking out over Los Angeles. Recently, a terrorist plot to destroy the Library Tower, similar to the plot to destroy the World Trade Center, was foiled. If it had succeeded, not only the Library Tower would've been destroyed but a good deal of the LA downtown would've been destroyed too, due to its small area.

Other Dubai Projects

Reading the comments on my past post about the Burj Dubai, I've decided to add some other Dubai projects to share. NOTE: The list is VERY overwhelming. It may take a few days to get to grips with it.



The thing in the picture is the largest of three Palm-shaped islands, called the Palm Deira. The first Palm is under construction. This one, however, stretches 14 kilometres out into the Persian gulf(!)








This thing is The World. It is 8 kilometres in length, and consists of over 300 islands. Each island is a private resort, several square acres in area. If you want to buy here, be prepared to pay; islands go from $6,000,000 to $36,000,000 dollars US. Anyone for the South Island?




The Dubai Waterfront. To give you an idea of how gigantic this will be, the Palm-shaped structure that the "pincer" bends down towards is the second largest Palm. This development will have an area of 81 square kilometres, larger than Manhattan. If you look closely at the picture, you will see the largest Palm furthest away. Beside it is The World. The first and smallest Palm is along the coastline about half way between the second Palm and the World.





Hydropolis, an underwater hotel. Assembled in Germany, the price of a room will be from $500 per night.










The tower to your right, the Medinat-Al-Arab, if it gets the go-ahead, will be taller than the Burj Dubai once completed. It will be situated on the Dubai Waterfront.










Dubai Sports City. It will be 7.5 square km's in area. As well as the sports stadiums, it will have hotels and vistas. It will accommodate for nearly all sports, as well as games played indoors.







Dubailand Ski Dome, featuring 6000 tons of true snow. It is part of the Dubailand theme park, which is to be the largest in the world.









The projects you see here are only a small percentage of what's planned in Dubai. There are also plans for many of the world's largest buildings, and there are many other projects planned as well, usually based around a single theme (Airportland, Business Bay etc).

Other projects here.